Pension Protection Act Blog

Georgetown Law is offering a course in Spring 2008 on the Law of ‘24″. The course description states:

The award winning Fox Television drama series 24 explores America’s fictional response to international terrorism through the eyes of Jack Bauer, a U.S. counter-terrorism agent. Oftentimes without remorse or regard for the law, Agent Bauer is willing to do what has to be done when faced with the threat of kidnappings, assassinations, nuclear detonations, and bioterrorism on U.S. soil – despite traitors in his family, his unit, and the White House; partisan politics; sleeper cells; and hidden agendas. This course provides a detailed understanding of a very wide-range of U.S. domestic and international legal issues concerning counterterrorism in the context of the utilitarian and sometimes desperate responses to terrorism raised by the plot of 24. Course requirements include active classroom discussion and a paper of approximately 25 pages.

AbovetheLaw.com is calling this the Best Law School Course Ever. Kudos to Adjunct Professor Walter Sharp for finding a way to engage his audience in an area of the law which can be a little dry and confusing.

Dry and confusing can also be used to described deferred comp plans. ESPN is reporting that the players are unhappy that the FedEx Cup is paying prize money in the form of deferred compensation into the individual player’s tour-based retirement account instead of cash. With the FedEx Cup, it is not just the top prize of $10 million. The 10th place finisher is receiving $500,000 of deferred comp into their tour-based retirement account. Factor in the time value of money (since the player cannot start taking distributions until age 45) and the tax-free (or tax-deferred) nature of the payout, and the FedEx Cup makes a great study in the power of deferred comp plans. I have two law review articles to finish in the next six weeks on other subjects and then I need to find someone willing to let me teach a class on this because the FedEx Cup has made explaining deferred comp plans so much easier.

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